Viking River Cruise

Thanks for the review, but this site doesn't really deal much with cruising per se. Your review would be seen by a lot more cruisers if you posted your review on Cruise Critic.

Was your Viking River adventure up river from Budapest toward Germany or down river toward Romania?

I did the Rhine river Viking Rhine Cruise. I booked my own air and did my own "extensions" on each end. We enjoyed our cruise very much even though we like to do most of our traveling on our own. The only complaint I would make about Viking is similar to yours. Yeah, they give you deals on the airfare, but I got my own air for just a bit more. I noticed that the people with air through Viking had absolutely horrible itineraries. The last night, many were leaving at 4:30 am. This is crazy and impacts the last evening. In your case. If you are leaving your hotel at 3:30 am, you are paying for a hotel room that you didn't get much use out of! I don't know why this do this. It isn't consistent with the rest of the service they provide.

I do think it's a useful thread- given how incessantly Viking advertises (they sometimes sponsor Rick's tv show on my local PBS station) I'd expect some folks to be curious to see how reality does or does not match up with the ads.

We're signed up for a family Viking Cruise next summer-my parents would rather spend money on travel while they're still quite mobile instead of having the nursing home get it later, and I'm not going to turn down a free trip to Europe ;) We're adding on days in the Swiss Alps and Amsterdam on our own before and after the trip. Their pre and post cruise excursion packages did seem insanely overpriced for folks like us who are used to DIY-ing trips for a fraction of the cost. Especially when you're talking places where 4-5 star hotel rates are generally pretty modest. I think those add on days are best for either very inexperienced travelers (Viking makes a big deal of how you lose their included transfers for DIY extra days, and there are some who are intimidated at the idea of taking a train to AMS on their own) or the crowd that is simply not price-sensitive.

Parents cheerfully paid the extra $150 per head for 'fight deviation' or whatever Viking calls it so we could pick our own airports, airlines, and flight routes. And parents wanted to pick too. While they're doing a Viking excursion on the front end because an extra full day in Basel just seemed convenient in getting to the ship, they're also heading to Germany afterwards to visit old friends n the Dusseldorf area from Dad's people-to-people exchange days i and flying home from there. (Spousal Unit and I have homeward tickets with a noon departure so we can have a full night's sleep and a relaxed breakfast before heading to AMS)

Parents have a friend who is a travel agent cruise specialist, and she was pretty helpful in talking about the different options you have in booking rather than just accepting Viking's default settings.

Yes, they act like transportation to and from the airport is some big deal. In the cities in Europe that I have been to, that is definitely not the case. As an example, in Basel it was easy to get to city center from the airport (and no cost if you are staying in a hotel in Basel) and then to the dock, it was an easy trolley ride. I have not been to a city in Europe yet where it was difficult to get to/from the airport and has never cost more than about 10 euro.

We cruised from Amsterdam to Budapest. Each day view was different, but Danube in Germany was the most beautiful and interesting. The drought in Europe necessitated transferring by bus two different times. Viking had "sister" ships at each different transfer with the room layout the same, therefor one kept the same room number on each ship. There are other rivers I'd like to cruise, but I will investigate other lines - any suggestions?

Well, I'm glad you posted to this Forum because I am constantly debating with myself about whether or not to take a river cruise. Even though you had to circumvent low water twice by bus, you still give the cruise an overall positive rating. That's significant to me.

We did enjoy it. After the first six days my wife and I both agreed we were glad we had another week. The "optional" excursions/side trips added up to about $1,000 dollars apiece. Unlimited wine/beer at lunch/dinner. As far as cruise interruptions, the river can be impassible if the water level is too low or too high, this year it was too low. I have done a lot of non-river cruising and found that the passengers on this ship were seasoned, interesting, well-behaved and exhibited good manors and flexibility (compared to ocean cruising.). A river cruise would NOT be a good place for kids... there are not enough activities to keep them interested.

My friends took exactly the same Viking cruise as rlreher (OP) from Amsterdam to Budapest in August of this year. They also had to transfer twice by bus to a sister ship. Following the cruise Viking offered them (and everyone on that cruise) a 50% discount on a cruise in either 2019 or 2020. They have already signed up for another cruise, as the 50% discount was very attractive to them.

They enjoyed the cruise, although not being able to fully unpack because you had to repack twice to switch boats was an inconvenience that they did not enjoy.

This is a good point about the risks of low water and transfer by bus possibility. It kind of takes out one of the real attractions in my mind of doing one of these cruises - the unpacking once.

Adding to Kim's comments , we are currently in Strasbourg , and yesterday encountered two ladies from Rhode Island , just outside the cathedral . On a river cruise , the boat has been at the quay since the start , due to low water , and they are being shuttled about by bus . Needless to say , they were extremely disappointed .

As I understand it, the entire area has been in a record setting drought this year. France had floods yesterday. We were in Poland in July and experienced drought conditions. Weather is difficult to gauge. Overall - I enjoyed the experience, but we are "go with the flow" travelers. I WOULD consider arranging my own air (with flight changeinsurance if you are not in a higher level frequent flier program) and my own pre/post cruise package. The post-cruise extension to Budapest was at the Intercontiental Hotel... perfect location, beautiful view, trolley/bus right outside... just got screwed by the flight times.

I have taken Viking's "Passage to Eastern Europe" with end points of Budapest and Bucharest. Our trip began in Romania and ended in Hungary. Although the scenery along the lower Danube is not particularly interesting, visiting cities and towns along the course of the journey, through Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary certainly were. And, although Eastern European adventures are not as popular as the more famous European destinations, I found this particular trip to be very worthwhile.
The list of included excursions was considerable. Having booked the trip thru AAA, I was rewarded with $125 in "on-ship credit", which I could use for added excursions. I was hard pressed to spend it all, although several excellent options were available in Budapest, Having been there, previously, I had already become familiar with these.
Two highlights worthy of mention - a Croatian home-hosted visit - a remarkable 2 hour intimate look at family life in what was, quite recently, a war torn neighborhood and a visit to a Bulgarian public school outside Vidin. Both were included excursions.
The "lower Danube" (Budapest to the Black Sea) is less susceptible to water level trip interruptions - only two locks during the course of that portion of the river journey.

We had low water when we did a Viking Cruise in 2015 (Budapest to Nuremberg). We were bussed, then changed boats, with another Viking boat and it worked out fine other than having to get used to a new crew. Other than us not being cruise people, the one negative was the need to tip the bus drivers, local guides, etc. Seemed like for every excursion someone needed to be tipped, and that got very old, very quickly. We did a 3-day extension to Prague through Viking and it worked out fine, although we probably could have done it on our own for less.